[PAO] Ken, er, CAN we do better?

[DOUGLAS E. JESSMER, Lt Col, CAP CAP/PM]

All this back and forth, and I just wish you people would get off my lawn. Carlson’s right. You woke me up, though I have to say, I’ve been watching this discussion and there are some good points on all sides. 

Many times in CAP, our unit commanders (full disclosure: I was a squadron commander a couple of times) dump a duty assignment on someone and tell them we’ll help them, then we’re too busy to circle back around and actually make good on our word. Frankly, and I hate this expression, but… that sucks. A lot of good it does when someone’s assigned and we give them a few little morsels of information, then tell them “go to it, Sparky,” slap them on the butt and that’s the end of it. That’s a leadership issue, not a direct public affairs problem.

What’s worse, on the leadership side, is that public affairs isn’t always treated as the frontline thing it’s become in the Information Age. When I joined CAP in 1984, the public affairs officer was usually one of the less useful members of a squadron, who walked around with a scrapbook talking about how things were 20 years before. Absolutely, totally useless. And that’s NOT what public affairs and marketing are now, nor should they ever be again. We are salespeople. We are communicators. We are architects of public perception, leading the way and encouraging those around us to follow our lead. We are information warriors, if you want to go that far, but any of you start wearing a ninja sword in public and I’m going to ridicule you as a dork.

The people who get into PA and show more ambition than knowledge wind up being pushed into the limelight and they’re learning as they go along. That’s a horrible place to be. They’re going to stutter and trip, and they shouldn’t be doing that on the wing stage. Group level’s bad enough, at least in bigger groups around major metro areas…. And hey, this happens to commanders, too, so we’re not alone. (How many people are suckered into squadron and group command billets to stumble around for at least the first year?)

The national folks (full disclosure: I was one of ‘em for a time, before Julie took my red Swingline stapler) say some nice things about how we should mentor, but there are issues, as you already know — we don’t have enough PAs who are strong enough to mentor, and those who are wind up swamped with more questions than Sam Donaldson could ever fire off at a Reagan White House presser. 

To top that, we have professionals in public relations, marketing and other related fields who aren’t in CAP public affairs, or were and thought better of it after seeing it in action, or inaction, whichever. These are resources we need to tap, and we don’t, or we say we’ll get back to them and we don’t. Or the bureaucracy or the politics screw everything up, they say go do something unspeakable with yourself, and go back to flying.

The paid staff at HQ CAP/PM is stretched thin, and since it’s sleepy Montgomery-frickin’-Alabama and not New York, Miami or some other big advertising/public relations mecca, resources and talent aren’t as abundant, much like our funding for publicity and collateral. There’s only a small number of uniformed members — like, two or three — attached, and there’s only so much they can do. They’re talented people, but they have real jobs, too.

What’s my solution? First off, I’m nominating myself to be the next national commander. (After all, I’m due.) And once you’re done laughing at that, there are several things off the top of my head. It’s after 1 a.m. Eastern time, so if this comes across as being less than tactful, or as the rhetorical equivalent of a drive-by shooting, I apologize in advance. Blame Carlson. He’s the one who dragged me into this. If I’m meandering or sounding like Richard Nixon late at night after a couple of drinks and a few erased tapes, YOU ASKED FOR IT.

1. Bring the pros into the fold, encourage them, foster their ideas, and DON’T BE SO QUICK TO SAY NO. (After all, whoever thought “Citizens Serving Communities” DIDN’T sound like a Police Academy sequel and was indeed a great slogan for CAP should have been punched right square in the nose. It’s a slogan that could describe the local food pantry, the Salvation Army, anyone. It’s vague, meaningless, vapid and it stinks, and it needs to die quickly. That showed a lack of thought on the part of the creatives involved, and was probably formulated by committee, much like the Edsel. KILL IT WITH FIRE! But I digress.)

Why not be quick to say no? We have people in this organization who get off on flaunting rank and grade and who absolutely LOVE to tell people they can’t do something. That’s a bad attitude that needs to be stomped out. If there’s no real good reason to say no, don’t say it. We have to have a framework — I agree wholeheartedly — but people in CAP who do this stuff for a living (and presumably know it far better than the cadet’s mom who was just assigned as a squadron PA) shouldn’t face a wall of NO because they bring a different perspective, or someone’s afraid of them. We shut people down before we give them a chance sometimes, usually because they don’t fit into our nice, tidy little box. And we need the talent, the knowledge and the ideas. This territorial and comfort-zone silliness you see in some quarters has to stop.

2. Take our best talent and turn them loose on up-and-comers. We have wing PAs who show more ambition than knowledge and ability, and their OJT is on a bigger stage than it should have been. Why can’t we work in a cohort group to raise the level of knowledge so the wing and region PAs can trickle information downward? The Facebook group doesn’t do enough of that, instead posting trivia and clips from news sites of CAP stories, but we’re not asking enough questions, posing dilemmas for people to solve, and what are we really doing there?

This listserv could do just that, incidentally. I’ve also suggested in the past that a regular email be sent out from HQ CAP/PM to PAs in the field to keep them up to speed on what we’re all doing. That didn’t happen. Which leads me to...

3. BETTER PLANNING. We don’t do it the way we should. We tend to be reactive and not very proactive. Big events should be planned a year out, at least, or at least, they should be put on a marketing calendar. If you ask “what’s a marketing calendar?”, that’s a good question. Where I work, we use them, and they cascade from the international level down to the local — each week and month is labeled, denoted in the national/international column with monthly themes and quarterly initiatives and events, the state and association column with what it’s doing that dovetails into national events, with our own stuff, and then the local column with its promotions, programs and whatever that supports the state and national initiatives. We have stuff on our radar at least a year out. A master calendar from National that cascades through regions to wings and downward would be ideal to help better coordinate what we do. (It’s something I’ve tried to use, but there’s something about that pesky CAP “no” that came up.)

But a calendar isn’t enough. We need to talk more to each other. We need command support and encouragement at all levels, too.

4. Let’s go back to 2 for a minute, and talk about MENTORING. Annual public affairs workshops are nice, but they aren’t everything. We introduce ourselves to each other… get a few classes in… maybe listen to me stumble and stammer for an hour and you fall asleep... and seldom hear from each other until… well, until the next public affairs workshop. Those workshops are the time for unit PAs to network, and even to form bonds of cooperation. But the people who teach at those workshops are set apart as expert (at least to some extent) on what they’re teaching. Why aren’t they around to help mentor outside the conferences? And why don’t they reach out to conferees occasionally to see how they’re doing? There’s just a big communication gap.

Actually, one issue I see that grinds my gears is that talent, knowledge and ability are sometimes overlooked because of politics in CAP. We should have our best and most capable people in positions, not people who are appointed because of friendship or familiarity. And that’s the best way to ensure mentors are in place in the right place.

Crap, I’ve written enough. It’s bedtime. I’m sure I’m scattershot and random, and I’m not going back to self-edit. I’ve probably hacked all of you off, and if so, good. You woke me up. You people keep arguing, and I’m going to chime in when Jeff forgets something else because of old age. (He’s probably younger than me, which is the scary part.) I’m going to go find a 190-1 from about 1991 and remember wistfully what CAP public affairs was like before the Internet, and that oughta be good bedtime reading.

All that said, thank you for supporting America’s Air Force Auxiliary, we newly minted Airmen-with-a-capital-A, because it’s you who keep the props turning, the wings flying, the coffee pots perking and the donut boxes filled at mission base. (Save me a jelly, eh?) 

Good night. Enjoy the argument.

DEJ




Lt Col Douglas E. Jessmer
Advisor to the Commander
Cleveland Lakefront Thunderbirds Sq, Ohio Wing
(M) 727 480 9606 (Clearwater, Fla.)
U.S. Air Force Auxiliary
gocivilairpatrol.com
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